Joe Thornton and the Sharks are already starting to talk contract extension. Thornton’s current contract ends at the end of the upcoming season. Here’s the thing about Thornton and the Sharks: The Sharks want to keep him around and Thornton wants to stay in San Jose. He’s comfortable in San Jose, where he and his [...]

While Donald Fehr, the legendary head of Major League Baseball’s players union, hasn’t taken the NHLPA job quite yet, it seems like he’ll eventually accept the gig. It also seems like someone is working with the NHLPA to give them leverage moving into the next Collective Bargaining Negotiation. Otherwise, would Ilya Kovalchuk’s camp really be [...]

This is a cool video featuring the faces of Wayne Gretzky, Sidney Crosby, Alex Ovechkin, Teemu Sellane, and Henrik Zetterberg being morphed into a new Soviet player. The transformation takes place using Photoshop and it’s pretty amazing: Merrill Kazanjian, the artist, has a YouTube channel here (although, sadly, he doesn’t work exclusively with hockey players).

Lyle Richardson is asking if the Islanders need another goaltender. Right now, the plan seems to be going with Dwayne Roloson, who’ll be 41 when the season starts, and Rick DiPietro, who has played just 13 games over the last two seasons. I’m not sure what the thought process is for the Islanders. Roloson was [...]

Is Hartford Whalers gear outselling a significant proportion of active NHL team merchandise? It depends who you ask. According to a vendor who’s a major Whaler seller, Whaler gear is in the top five nationally. According to the NHL, Whaler gear is popular, but they won’t rank it against other NHL teams. The Whalers are [...]

With all of the Ilya Kovalchuk drama going on, it’s time to take a deep breath and ask a simple question: What is the business of the NHL? What is the NHL there to do? What does it make? I would argue the NHL makes hockey. The goal of the league is to allow players [...]

The other day, I wrote about how Cup-winning experience is actually a good thing. The Blackhawks’ summer payroll purge has resulted in a Cup-winning team jettisoning a decent part of its Cup-winning experience. And that could wind up being a fatal mistake for Chicago. Obviously, a lot of the experience purge is due to salary [...]

Winning the Stanley Cup is like being in a fraternity. It’s a little bit of a job hook-up device. Players who had any kind of significant role in winning the Cup are usually more likely to get jobs or traded for. The idea is that if a team is making a Cup run, GMs want [...]